Now… what does this mean for me, I ask myself?

The remaining aspects of SWISS’s collaboration with British Airways will be terminated at the end of the 2004 summer schedules, with the exception of the codeshare arrangement on British Airways-operated services between Geneva and London (Heathrow), which will remain in force for a further three years.

It basically means LX is screwed… As they’ve sold most of their LHR slots to BA (they’ve only retained the ZRH ones), it means all services from Geneva to London (LHR, LCY and LGW)will be BA or BACX operated, with LX only retaining a codeshare agreement on the LHR flights.
Similarly, It looks like BA won’t operate any services to BSL for 6 months between the end of the Summer timetable and the beginning of next year’s Summer timetable, when BA were due to take over LX’ operations on the LHR-BSL route. Consequently, LX, however, won’t have any flights to London ex BSL at all as of the end of March 2005, unless they’re willing to transfer some of their ZRH slots at LHR to BSL, which, frankly, I can’t see…

Nonetheless, competition on fares is going to plummet between Switzerland and the UK… Thankfully easyJet have started operations from BSL, which should at least keep them honest. I also read somewhere that SWISS have reached the conclusion that axeing the BSL-LCY route they inherited from Crossair was a bad idea, as it was a cash cow, and they might reintroduce it, just to retain an interest in the London market, which, with three major Pharmaceutical companies being headquartered in Basel, as well as the Bank of International Settlements, is a pretty big market (in fact, LHR is the only route LX use aircraft with more than 50 seats ex-BSL for (it’s an A320, three times daily)).

Hmm, no doubt we shall see how these problems are solved…

And there’s already a book open on how long it’ll be till the first LX aircraft shows up in Star colours…

and oneworld’s press release…

oneworld releases Swiss International Air Lines from its commitment to join the global alliance

June 03, 2004

oneworld has released Swiss International Air Lines from its commitment to join the global alliance.

The move follows an agreement between the airline and established oneworld partner British Airways to free SWISS, at its request, from the bilateral commercial agreement they signed in October 2003, which was a fundamental condition of it becoming a member of the global alliance.

All code-shares and bilateral relationships between SWISS and the other existing individual oneworld partners remain in place.

oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch said: “This is unfortunate, but we have always been clear that oneworld will only recruit airlines where they add value both to our customers and to our existing partners. Without the full implementation of its bilateral agreement with British Airways, SWISS would substantially reduce the value BA derives from oneworld.

“SWISS has indicated that oneworld is still its preferred alliance and that it hopes to be in a position to seek membership again in the future, which we would welcome under terms suitable for all.

“Meantime, oneworld has four of Europe’s leading airlines on board, working closely together and based at some of the continent’s best hubs, so we are already strongly represented in this region.

“We continue to offer the world’s most international network, serve more countries than any other alliance, market more alliance fare and sales products than all our rivals combined, and lead the field in customer service with developments like interline e-ticketing between all our partners, which is on track for full implementation by the end of this year. Furthermore, we believe we generate more value for our partners than any of our competitors achieve for their members.”

With partners Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia all increasing their services to Switzerland in recent months, oneworld remains committed to its customers in the country and intends to continue to develop its range of services and products in this market, providing the best connections between Zurich, Geneva and Basel to the 575 destinations on the alliance’s worldwide network.

SWISS was originally voted on board as a member elect of oneworld on September 2003.

ends